Catch the Wind
by museicality
Summary: Drabble series based on lyric prompts from "Catch the Wind" by the Spill Canvas. Dom and Evin centric. Written for SMACKDOWN 2011, Team Underpants.
1. Minutes of Uncertainty

Title: Minutes of Uncertainty

Rating: G

Word Count: 138

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "In the chilly hours and minutes of uncertainty": Evin stops at a crossroads, but Dom knows where to find him. (Part of "Catch the Wind" prompt cycle; lyrics by The Spill Canvas.)

The time before the sun rises causes him to shiver. The beginning of grey light touches the highest buildings, and his skin, used to long summer days and hazy nights, quivers and shivers.

It's an in-between time, and he's in an in-between place, stopped at a crossroads and

uncertain of which way to turn next.

He wants to go; he feels it, somewhere next to his heartbeat, but his mind is in-between too and he doesn't know if there is white and black here in-between.

"You're shivering."

Dom knew that he'd be out here, standing like an idiot alone in the courtyards. Evin turned, and his expression left an exasperated smile twitching at the corners of Dom's mouth.

"Stop thinking so hard; you're going to hurt yourself. Come on."

Evin left the crossroads and questions where they were.


	2. The Warm Hold of Your Love

Title: The Warm Hold of Your Love

Rating: G

Word Count: 143

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "I long to be in the warm hold of your love and mind": Dom wonders if he is the only one watching the skies this particular night, and rather hopes that he is not. (Part of "Catch the Wind" prompt cycle; lyrics by The Spill Canvas.)

Peacetime patrols and autumn's crisp breath across the countryside lend themselves beautifully to clarity of mind, he'd found.

Clear colors—the leaves were beginning to change again.

Clear skies—the sliver of moon lit the night just enough for silver shadows to dance

along the edges of the grass and the trees.

Clear hearts—but his was one that beat unaccompanied and heavy in his chest.

Dom lay back under the open sky, surrounded by all of camp but alone in his wakefulness, and let his face tingle in the night air.

It was an exquisite midnight. He hoped that his were not the only eyes to experience it, though he sat out under the stars, a solitary shadow.

The space next to him was cold, and he had to rely on his mind to fill it with warmth and a dazzling smile.


	3. To Feel You All Around

Title: To Feel You All Around

Rating: G

Word Count: 201

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "To feel you all around and take your hand along the sand": Evin's thoughts drift as he faces the ocean. (Part of "Catch the Wind" prompt cycle; lyrics by The Spill Canvas.)

All kinds of magic lay along the water, Evin thought as he meandered along the beaches of Pirate's Swoop. Practical magics like the trainees were learning, mythical griffons screaming in the distance, even just the lady knight herself, for all that he would never say anything of the sort to her face. The water rushed in and faded out, a peaceful rhythm under his feet.

The peace here was lacking only one thing, but peace didn't have a wicked grin or dark tousled hair swept rakishly off of its face.

The salt wind blew in his face, and he raised his arms as if to embrace it, to embrace [i]him[/i], feeling it kiss his cheeks and tangle through his hair. There was power and passion and, no other way to describe it, magic in this wind, rushing around him, circling him, teasing him with caresses and leaving him wanting and longing, missing and waiting.

Evin opened his eyes to blue; the blue green water before him and the endless blue sky. It was even the right shade.

This wasn't longing, not exactly.

Evin stood on the beach for a long time, hands empty but for the wind twining through his fingers.


	4. I May as Well Try and Catch the Wind

Title: I May As Well Try and Catch the Wind

Rating: G

Word Count: 182

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "I may as well try and catch the wind": Evin can't be caught, Dom understands the reason why. (Part of "Catch the Wind" prompt cycle; lyrics by The Spill Canvas.)

There were so many reasons why Dom understood, but to try anything would be to change him, and Dom never would.

The way he gave away smiles, sowing them far and wide like a farmer scatters grain.

His voice, melancholy and low in the twilight as he spun out a song from his childhood into the night air.

How he was the first to laugh, especially when no one else would dare.

The way the lower city made the corner of his eyes tighten, and the way he never talked about why.

The way he didn't even notice how he covered up his emotions with extravagant gestures and loud declamations of poetic pieces he still remembered.

The way he still talked about the Riders, all these years later, and the way that he could live out of his saddle; the fact that everything else ranked second, and how he would drop everything to answer the call to mount up.

Dom understood these reasons. He didn't always like them, but changing them would take away a part of Evin, and Dom never would.


	5. Behind Your Smile

Title: Behind Your Smile

Rating: G

Word Count: 155

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "I wanna hide away behind your smile": The Riders return, and Dom can't keep a smile from his face. (Part of "Catch the Wind" prompt cycle; lyrics by The Spill Canvas.)

Dom smiled right through breakfast.

Lerant scowled. "Stop being happy; it's morning."

Dom ignored him, even though it was actually a full sentence from Lerant before noon. He settled for turning his smile extra sunny, even when Lerant grabbed the last cheese roll.

Dom's smile continued as he watched Qasim run the newest members of the Own around the yards. Granted, that usually made most of the Own smile, but his expression never wavered, even after Flyndon took over and most people turned away with a wince.

Dom's merry expression lasted through midday, through the reviews of the Own's equipment Raoul had cornered him into doing, and amazingly through the Palace Stores themselves despite the best efforts of the stony faced servants working there.

Sundown found him smiling and sitting on the roof of the Own's stables.

Evin's head popped up, and he grinned. "So you did get my note."

Dom's smile widened. "Welcome back."


	6. Everywhere I Look

Title: Everywhere I Look

Rating: G

Word Count: 192

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "Everywhere I'd look, your eyes I'd find": Dom can't shake the feeling of eyes on him. (Part of "Catch the Wind" prompt cycle; lyrics by The Spill Canvas.)

The sensation has been creeping over him for a fortnight, head to toes, prickling his scalp and running up and down his spine. Dom brushed it off; must be sweat, tickling and prickling as it dripped and stuck his tunic to his chest.

Whoever first came up with the idea of a Summer Progress should be imprisoned and subjected to the heartless pranking of the Riders, especially those of their fearless leader, he thought.

Although, a gratuitous amount of their pranks involved water…even knowing the dressing-down he'd be given, riding sopping wet in the Progress, didn't stop him from imagining being doused in cold, refreshing water by someone with blonde hair…

His eyes snapped open, but there was empty air in front of him, instead of the familiar face he almost expected. He twisted in his saddle, only to be rewarded with Lerant's sullen scowl and a glare behind him.

Ugh.

When they rode back into Corus, having split off from the Progress for a week's break, Dom felt it again.

He turned, ready to match Lerant's glare with his own, only to meet a lazy grin and dancing eyes watching him.


	7. Tears

Title: Tears

Rating: G

Word Count: 202

Pairing: Team Underpants

Round/Fight: 1/A

Summary: "When the rain had hung the trees with tears": Sometimes he gets rain on his face. (Part of "Catch the Wind" prompt cycle; lyrics by The Spill Canvas.)

The morning had dawned chill and damp, dew collecting along the edges of the leaves that hung down, heavy, over the road.

It fit the mood perfectly. Mud coated everything, splashed up over faces and onto saddlebags, streaking everything the same drab brown.

Evin hated marches like this; not the triumphant return in the sun bearing glad tidings and a joyous Rider Group that most stories described, but the aching, beaten down trod of a Group coming in from the field with various bandages and slings telling the true story of the Rider's purpose.

People were waiting, when they got back to the barracks. Other Rider groups took charge of mounts and their injured comrades, directing traffic to the infirmary or their baths and beds.

Strong fingers pried Evin's reins from his hands as the drizzle began to thicken. Evin protested a moment, but gave in when he saw that Dom's expression brooked no arguments.

His shoulders slumped; he was home. He felt mud slide down his neck and under his shirt, dripping from his hair, but he didn't care, and his own expression must have shown this.

It was rain, running down his face. It was.

Dom wiped it away, anyway.


	8. Leave My Blues Behind

Title: Leave My Blues Behind  
>Rating: G<br>Word Count: 156  
>Pairing: Team Underpants<br>Round/Fight: 1/A  
>Summary: "To help me leave all my blues behind": Blues, or blues- either way, Evin makes Dom leave them. (Part of "Catch the Wind" prompt cycle; lyrics by The Spill Canvas.)<p>

"Nope."

Evin tugged the tunic away from him. "Not tonight."

Dom raised his eyebrows, looking between his tunic and Evin's face.

"What's wrong with my tunic?" he wanted to know—it wasn't worn out or ripped; in fact, it was one of the ones that had been mended rather well, if he did say so himself.

Evin made a face and chucked the offending article behind his bed. "No blues for you tonight; tonight, we're going to the city and enjoying ourselves, no uniforms or work involved."

"Oh really?"

"Don't pretend like you don't want to, Masbolle. You've been out in the field as long as I have."

Dom grabbed another tunic at random and shoved it over his head. "Does this meet your standards, Larse?"

Evin gave him a once over—that shade of red looked good on him—and strode to the door.

"You look dashing. Now stop fishing for compliments and let's go."


	9. I'll Long to Be

Title: I'll Long To Be  
>Rating: G<br>Word Count: 118  
>Pairing: Team Underpants<br>Round/Fight: 1/A  
>Summary: "I'll Long To Be": Is this too desperate? (Part of "Catch the Wind" prompt cycle; lyrics by The Spill Canvas.)<p>

Dom-

The Progress is (bloody horrible) going well; we've been making (absolutely no time) decent time since leaving the seacoast, although last week's storms have turned the road into soup. Aren't you glad you don't have to be here? Getting the grit out of the Own's mail would be a neverending chore…

We've been reduced to simply slogging from one place to another; (not even King Jon would try to get Buri to attempt a showy Progress right now) it's just not worth the trouble to attempt to look impressive.

(I miss yo-)

(It's boring here without y-)

Hopefully we'll be released from this infernal parade sometime soon; I find myself longing to see (you) Corus again.

-Evin


	10. But I May as Well Try and Catch the Wind

It wasn't even raiding season any longer, but somehow the days were still rushing by, full to overflowing of never ending lists. Evin couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was that kept him hopping from sun up to long after sundown, but by the time he hit his bed late at night, he was left alone with his daydreams and could-haves.

He sometimes remembered seeing members of the Own in the practice yards, but only rarely did he encounter Dom, and something always came up and drew them in opposite directions.

Catch you later, they would say before striding off again, but then it they reached the end of the day and later still hadn't come.

Evin sorted through them all, the glimpses, and the maybes, the promises bent nearly to breaking.

There were more tonight than yesterday.

Later still hadn't come.


End file.
